Marketing | SEO BlackHat: Black Hat SEO Blog

new movies

Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

An SEOs Guide to Proxies – FAQ

September 26th, 2006

QuadsZilla

Share

(Special thanks to Insomniac of Digital Cyber Soft for posting most of the following in our forum):

What is a proxy?

In it’s simplest form a proxy is a relay for data between two computers. A proxy can be anonymous, or not anonymous (transparent). As with most things one proxy does not fit all situations, so you will have to find the most appropriate proxy to the task you wish to complete.

What does that have to do with SEO?

This completely depends on what you wish to accomplish. The two most common purposes for proxies in the SEO industry are firstly to spoof (or fake) your country of origin, and secondly to get around various filters imposed on you by various websites.

Why would I want to fake my country?

There are many reasons, not all of which are Black Hat. In the past I have had a Right Media rep tell me to use a proxy to test geotargetting (serving diferent ad or content to diferent regions). From a Black Hat perspective, you might wish to artificially make it appear you receive a higher percentage of U.S. traffic (or any other region for that matter).

Why do websites filter by IP usage? Don’t they wan’t the traffic?

Alot of websites offer some great services which are useful to everyone. However if their server load is too high their costs increase. Or they could be in a situation where the data they provide is valuable, so they only provide small ammounts of it at a time. Most sites which filter traffic do so on a per IP basis, and only rarely filter by C block’s (the last digits of an IP 192.68.0.XXX).

I get it, proxies give me more IP’s to abuse, but why would I care about being anonymous?

Apart from the obvious situation where the service you are accessing is copyright, there are plenty more reasons. For example, if you are creating multiple accounts on a service such as Digg, your IP you use makes it very easy for moderators to locate your fake accounts and remove them. However if each account has diferent details and no logical link between them then you are far less likely to lose your accounts all at once.

Sounds dodgy, are proxies legal?

This is a rather touchy subject, most free countries have no laws against using proxies aslong as you don’t have to bypass any security to use it. This means, if the proxy requires a username and password to access it then unless the proxy owner has given it to you, you are not legally allowed to use it. Thankfully, Black Hat SEO techniques do not include illegal activities, but if one were to step over that border then a proxy is a must.

Is it ok to transfer sensitive information over proxies?

Unless you own and run it, absolutely not. People have been known to setup Honeypot (system activity monitor) proxies to do jut that, steal information.

Wow, proxies are great, but where do they come from?

A large ammount of the time proxies are setup by accident. System administrators intend to set one up for their network and accidentally forget to deny external traffic. Certain types of proxies such as Socks (not made for the feet) are more commonly spread by viruses for email spam purposes.

Ok, I got myself some proxies, but they none of them seem to do anything, whats the deal?

Quite simply, most people who provide proxies do not test them properly first. Due to the nature of proxies they regularly go down, and run under some odd parameters.

Your average proxy list goes through one stage checking against what is called a “proxy judge”. However, due to the nature of checks in the average standalone software — it’s not always possible to detect whether a proxy is truly active or not. This leads to many false positives about whether the proxy is active and even about its’ anontmity.

The system we use to build the proxy list for proxy.seoblackhat.com goes through a considerable ammount of tests and frequent rechecks. The entire list of public proxies is rechecked roughly once every two hours. Access to the proxy list is a new benefit availabe to forum members.

A script to fetch the proxies has already been created and posted on the boards.

Posted in Black Hat, Black Hat Tools, Blog, Blogs, Internet, Internet Marketing, Marketing, SEM, SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Weblogs

3 Comments »

Brainstorming for a Better, More Brandable Domain Name

September 25th, 2006

QuadsZilla

Share

Normally, buying and using an aged domain with existing backlinks for a new project is the best option for a webmaster. However, if you already have a sizable network of sites and tons of great contacts in the industry, you should consider selecting a name that is brandable and fits with what you are doing.

This process can pay large dividends later on when your brand name becomes synonymous with the service you offer. Plus, brainstorming doesn’t have to be a painful process – you can have fun while being productive. After all, when the game stops being fun, it’s time to find something else to do.

Take the example of Levi from boogybonbon. About a month ago, we started talking about an incredible new Keyword service he was developing.

These excerpts from our ICQ conversations should help you when you’re brainstorming about a new project:

Session Start (L3vi): Tue Aug 15 18:09:04 2006
L3vi: I’m asking a handful of friends. Got any good ideas for a keyword search service domain name? The guy at searchables.com will not sell me the domain no matter what I offer so I’m now scratching my head on something that is marketable to the point that I could standup to wordtracker or better.
QuadsZilla: consider something brandable without kw
L3vi: yeah.. that’s what I been trying..
L3vi: looking for something with word or keyword.. or something that will feel like keywords stuff. lol seo, design, marketing is easy.. this is always the pain in the ass stuff.
QuadsZilla: keywordalizer
L3vi: hmm not bad how about wordalizer.com
QuadsZilla: you could also go with something like keywordromp
QuadsZilla: wordromp
QuadsZilla: if its avail
L3vi: that sounds like a sex site. ;p LOL
QuadsZilla: = more traffic!
L3vi: how about wordzar
L3vi: wordzar.com
QuadsZilla: is that how you spell zar?
QuadsZilla: isn’t there another letter in there?
L3vi: yeah
L3vi: its tzar or also spelled ZAR
L3vi: ref dictionary.com
QuadsZilla: wordbot?
L3vi: taken
L3vi: Zar may refer to: Alternative spelling of “Tsar” was the official title of the supreme ruler in the following states. ref wikipedia
QuadsZilla: that’s what i was thinking
L3vi: that one has come back around 3 times. Larry gives a B+. I’m middle ground about it, but been spitting out domain names all day so I’m getting run down on what sounds good and what is just another word. LOL
QuadsZilla: justanotherword.com
QuadsZilla: ;p
L3vi: lol
L3vi: “[16:55] l3vi: Thebestknownblackhatkeywords.com
[16:55] l3vi: lol
[16:55] l3vi: wordtrackertookalltheotherdomains-soimstuckwiththisshit.com
[16:56] Larry: lol”
QuadsZilla: i own yembi.com
QuadsZilla: if you want that
QuadsZilla: not too descriptive
QuadsZilla: but very “2.0″
QuadsZilla: you really going to start that on a fresh domain?
L3vi: don’t know if it feels right. Ill have to sleep on that..
QuadsZilla: that’s madness
L3vi: yeah. why not. LOL built my empire from fresh domains. ;p
QuadsZilla: back in the day
QuadsZilla: how about wordtacker?
QuadsZilla: wordtackler
L3vi: I could put it on boogybonbon.com, but I don’t know how well it will hold up on my blog for a service.
QuadsZilla: wordsmacker
L3vi: I don’t want to get in any wrangles with wordtracker of copyright and C&Ds
QuadsZilla: i know. i was kidding
L3vi: bbl going to go play some 360 and drink a beer. ;p get my mind off of it till I get a better idea.
QuadsZilla: you’ll think of it when you’re half drunk
L3vi: yeah then forget it. LOL

Finally, after he decided to take a break and walk away from it – it hit him:

Session Start (L3vi): Tue Aug 15 19:32:39 2006
L3vi: I did not even get down the steps. LOL I think I found it.. wordze.com
QuadsZilla: that’s GOOD!
L3vi: cool that’s 3 thumbs up.. Ill go with that. now im taking that break..

We’ve had tons of other talks about Wordze since. I finally got to take it for a spin last week and was VERY impressed with the caliber of the product.

From today’s official release:

Unlike any other keyword research service available today, Wordze.com provides users access to a whole new level of keyword research by giving users up-to-date historical and sessional data on keywords that are being search for by internet users through ISP’s or Internet Portals.

It’s head and shoulders above the other keyword research products out there and can even give you an estimate on how competitive a search phrase is with its’ patent pending “Wordrank” technology.

Already, forum members have a great domain tool to work with and a 50% discount on the profession Cloaking software Kloakit. Levi and I are working out the details on how exactly to give access to members of the private SEO Black Hat forum. It will most likely be some sort of discount and the ability to test drive the product.

Look for an announcement on that in the next week or so.

We will be announcing yet another service that is only available to members of the Private SEO Black Hat Forums tomorrow . . .

Posted in Black Hat, Black Hat Tools, Blog, Blogs, Internet, Internet Marketing, Marketing, SEM, SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Weblogs

2 Comments »

Google: “Checking Backlinks = Spammy Requests”

September 24th, 2006

QuadsZilla

Share

Many of you might have seen that Google is given SEO advice to government agencies. The Google Cache is reporting that at one of those events, Adam Lasnik of Google gave a speech/session where he let out this little tidbit:

Google doesn’t improve the link: command because they don’t want spammy requests.

Adam then went on to say that if you want to check your backlinks that Yahoo Site Explorer was a good place to look.

Now, we’ve known forever that the link command was horrible in Google. What is interesting if that they consider backlink checking to be “Spammy Requests.” So all you “white hat SEOs” out there, do you make “Spammy Requests?” or would you rather just err on the side of not being seen as “Spammy?”

Posted in Blog, Blogs, Google, Internet, Internet Marketing, Marketing, SEM, SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Weblogs, Yahoo

6 Comments »

Why Prettier Sites Will Rank Higher in the SERPs

September 21st, 2006

QuadsZilla

Share

In the past few days, I’ve been playing around with Live.com. My observations have led me to the theory that “Live” is a very human editorial intensive project. As such, how aesthetically pleasing a site is will dramatically effect how well that site ranks. Understanding this shift will be crucial to you if you want to rank well search engines in the years to come.

Here’s why . . .

Let’s say that you are in charge of Search at Microsoft. You have a virtually unlimited budget and your job is to do what Microsoft has done in every market they have entered: your job is to win.

Step 1.
The first thing you should ask yourself is “Who is my target audience?” Who do you want to adopt your product? Is it the technically savvy? The very intelligent? The techie crowd? The power user?

No!

If you are at Microsoft and your goal is to win, your target audience must be the median 80% of searchers.

Step 2
What does your target audience want to see as a result when they are searching? Do they want to see authoritative sites? Sites that have been online for 5 years? Sites with a lot of links pointed at them? The sites that are the most popular in a given niche?

No!

For your target market, when they click a result they want to see a professional looking site: a pretty site – something that is aesthetically pleasing. They want a nice layout with pretty graphics. They want simple navigation. They do not want plain Jane text or a site that looks like 95% of blogs do.

They want to feel like what they landed on is not spam, not old, not geeky and might just have the answer to what they were searching for. They want to think that there is a legitimate company behind the site they landed on.

This part may be the toughest part for you to swallow. But you are not in the median 80% of users. You are a power user and you are a geek. Don’t believe me? Try going to your average football game or night club and using terms like “SEO”, “Blog”, or “Tag Cloud” with everyone you meet.

Most people don’t even know what the term “Search Engine” means. Once you get your head around that we can move on to . . .

Step 3
How can we deliver what that median 80% searcher wants? Well, there are about 6.5 million sites tracked by Alexa. We can safely say that any site without an Alexa ranking does not need to be indexed. Is there an algorithm that can tell you if a site will be pleasing to the human eye? Probably not. “Art” and “Style” would be very difficult to teach to a computer.

But since you only have a set of ~6.5 million sites to worry about, why not just hire people to review all the sites manually? The top 500,000 sites would represent more than 90% of web traffic. So lets say you hire 500 people to review those sites and 1,500 people to review the other 6 million.

For the High priority sites that’s just 1000 sites per person. That’s Hardly a difficult task for 1 person to monitor. For the lower priority sites, it’s about 4000 per person. That’s more difficult, but still doable.

I’m not saying you throw out the algorithms, I’m saying you use them as a starting point and then pick the best looking ones from there.

This method would satisfy the greatest number of users and it would be a drop in the bucket relative to the value of the market.

2,000 people, even if you hired them in the US (although I don’t know why you would) would only cost you about $50k per person per year or $100 million per year. Considering that Microsoft made $12 Billion in profits in the past year, they can easily swing that.

In fact, they could spend even more on human review. They could hire people from overseas for much less. They could easily hire 10 times that number of editors for less than $600 million per year (just 5% of company profits). Considering that revenue related to search advertising brought Google $2 billion in profits in the past year, I’d say that investing $600 million to deliver the best results is a no brainer.

Now will these people all be experts in every field? No. But they don’t have to be. There job is deliver the results that the median user will like most. Those results will be professional looking sites that answer the searchers queries. The blend of human editorial review with algorithmic analysis will be the wave of the future. Simply changing algorythms will not be able to best what an army of human reviews armed with similar algorythms can produce.

What does that mean for sites that are ugly looking? Sites that look like, say, SEO Black Hat does today? It means that we will either have to redesign to “Look” pretty, or we will not survive in the rankings long term.

Look for an SEO Black Hat redesign in the very near future . . .

Posted in Blog, Blogs, Google, Internet, Internet Marketing, MSN, Marketing, SEM, SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Weblogs

11 Comments »

Wired Splogs

September 19th, 2006

QuadsZilla

Share

Some of the factors for spotting splogs according to wired:

“If we see 10,000 pings within 60 seconds, and all the blogs point to the same Web site, it’s really easy to recognize that as a link farm,” Sifry says.

1. Ping Frequency: Not too often nor too regularly.

Like most blogs, Some Title consists of a number of 50- to 100-word posts (incoherent ones, in this case), all with hyperlinks to other Web sites. In real blogs, the hyperlinks’ anchor text – the word or phrase users click on – is generally something innocuous like “previous post” or “interesting discussion.”

2. Sure, Real blogs don’t usually link to “buy viagra online”. . .

The links in ordinary blogs usually take users to well-known sites like Flickr and YouTube or prominent blogs like Talking Points Memo and Boing Boing. By contrast, each link in Some Title takes the user to a spam Web page or another splog.

3. Link to authority sites.

These sites, moreover, often have odd-looking, superlong URLs that are packed with keywords, because search engines tend to award high ranks to Web sites with keywords in their title, and sploggers are constantly looking for ways to increase their visibility in search engines. One LiveJournal splog that mentioned me, for example, was called New-york-agency-direct-mail-insurance-marketing. The grave-robbing Web site had the absurd address www.1michaelgraves7.info/conducting-from-the-grave/
grave-robbing-in-ventura-california-1985.html. “If it’s a Blogspot blog with more than two dashes, it’s spam,” Mullenweg says. Simply checking for dashes and search terms in links, in other words, will eliminate many splogs.

4. Too many keywords in URL

Another giveaway: Both Some Title and the grave-robbing page it links to had Web addresses in the .info domain. Spammers flock to .info, which was created as an alternative to the crowded .com, because its domain names are cheaper – registrars often let people use them gratis for the first year – which is helpful for those, like sploggers, who buy Internet addresses in bulk. Splogs so commonly have .info addresses that many experts simply assume all blogs from that domain are fake.

5. Is anyone still buying dot info domains? If I were a search engine I would simply not index any content from that TLD. Problem solved.

By looking for multiple dashes, .info domains, and other trip wires, says Technorati software architect Ian Kallen, his company can deconstruct the links and content in every new blog post, as well as all the other elements of the page. In essence, he says, “you’re going after the money – what they have to do to get money. And you can use this to spot the abusers.”

Ask yourself, if “I wanted to eliminate spam from My search engine, what would I look for?” Then make sure you’re not setting off any of those red flags.

Posted in Blog, Blogs, Internet, Internet Marketing, Marketing, SEM, SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Spamouflage, Weblogs

2 Comments »

Google Creating a Platform for Malicious Hacker Worms?

September 14th, 2006

QuadsZilla

Share

AJAX has built in security features to prevent cross domain requests. This creates a problem for enthusiastic web developers that want to create certain robust web applications (like mashups). The solution? Hack up AJAX to do what you want by removing those annoying security features.

That’s the rout that many gung-ho web developers have gone . . . including Google.

But hold on a second! Weren’t those security features built in for a reason? Like for, umm, security or something?

This issues is tackled in Gnucitizen’s article, Google Search API Worms:

Google, one of the biggest AJAX evangelist today, provides JavaScript APIs to allow developers to mashup their services with Google’s enormous capabilities. As a result Google unconsciously enables various types of worms to craw and exploit the web.

Web worms can use Google’s infrastructure to propagate. If a malicious mind finds a vulnerability in WordPress for example and this vulnerability allows SQL Injection, a worm may be written to craw blogs in search for this vulnerability and embed itself into everything that is vulnerable. Once a user visits an infected blog the worm starts another cycle.

Another worm might be able to craw random sites and run generic Cross-site Scripting and SQL Injection checks and send the results to their master who will use them to release more advance worms.

It hasn’t happened yet but it appears to be vulnerability according to Gnucitizen. One worm we covered on seoblackhat was the sammy myspace worm.

Also, I like the Icon that Gnucitizen uses for Google; “The Google Grid” shot is taken from the famous Googlezon video. Good stuff!

Posted in Black Hat, Blog, Blogs, Google, Internet, Internet Marketing, Marketing, SEM, SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Weblogs, XSS Cross Site Scripting

Comments Off

Establishing Site Trust and SERPs with User Behavior

September 13th, 2006

QuadsZilla

Share

The evolution of search will focus on extensively on user behavior. Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft will move towards analyzing and trusting user behavior over other ranking factors because this factor alone is the best measure of a sites worth.

Consider this scenario:

Your task is to create an index of sites ranked by how much a user of your index will enjoy the results. You have a team of the best engineers and behavioral scientists in the world.

Imagine that the only data you have for creating this index is the surfing behavior of 10% of all web users. You will know what they search for, what they click, how long they spend on a page and what sites they visit and revisit.

I would submit that with the proper analysis of this data alone, one could devise a way to deliver more relevant and more enjoyable results than any of the search engines currently provide..

These would be some of the factors you would want to consider:

1. Profiling What is the user interested in? Based on which sites a surfer frequents and on query profiling, we can determine what a interests a user.
a. What sites does that user visit regularly?
b. What are the topics of those sites? (based on prior search queries)

2. Expertise Is the user a niche connoisseur or is his interest more passive? We might say that someone is a connoisseur of a topic based on what sites they visit and how long they spend on sites devoted to a given topic. Someone with a passive interest in Baseball might check one story from yahoo news per day while a connoisseur will be in baseball forums, go to online gambling sites, read detailed analysis about games, check lineups, and read many more articles about a topic.

3. Time investment How long does the user spend on the sites that he visits? If a user follows a search query to a site and then immediately leaves, that would indicate a poor quality site.

4. Do users visit multiple pages on a site? More page would be an indication that the user is interested in what the site has to offer.

5. Bookmarking What percentage of users bookmark the site or visit a social bookmaking site immediately after visiting the site? If a user wants to save a reference to a site, that is an indication of quality.

6. Repeat Visitors What percentage of users return to the site?

7. Usefulness Does the user continue searching after clicking a result? (was the question answered?)

So, for example, we determine that Mike is a Linux geek (connoisseur). Let’s say Mike
1. Makes a specific query related to Linux
2. Clicks on 4 results
3. Spends less than 30 seconds on the first 3 results
4. Spends more time on the 4th result
5. Bookmarks the 4th result
5. Browses more pages on the 4th result site.
6. Returns to that site at a later time.

We could say that Mike found the answer to his query and that the 4th result should be given more trust in future rankings. Over time we could develop metrics or filters to determine how much to trust a given behavior or behavioral pattern – mostly by trial and error, but eventually we would have it.

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are already incorporating this data into their search algorithms. They just need to work out the kinks and get past the trial and error phase. Analysis of user behavior through monitoring and profiling will be one of the most important Search developments in the years to come.

So what does this mean for webmasters like you? It means that sites that have loyal users and traffic will get more traffic. Do everything you can to increase stickyness, user loyalty, site visits and page views; it will increase the trust value of your site with the search engines. The rich will get richer.

For Black Hat SEOs, this may signal a shift towards zombie networks to emulate users and fake user behavior – not for the purpose of clicking ads, but for increasing the perceived value of a site in the eyes of a search engine’s algorithm. It will be the equivalent of controlling a percentage of the Neilson Boxes. Without sufficient information on what the user behavior really is, this may prove too difficult a task in the long run. However, the early implementations of behavioral analysis in Search will create exploits that could yield incredible returns.

In the future, however, this Zombie Boosting technique will only work with sites that can pass human editorial review – even if only cursory. I will discuss why in the next week.

Stay tuned . . .

Posted in Black Hat, Blog, Blogs, Internet, Internet Marketing, Marketing, SEM, SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Weblogs

6 Comments »

$500 Demise of Craiglist Prankster Jason Fortuny Contest

September 11th, 2006

QuadsZilla

Share

By now you are aware of Seattle Washington’s Jason Fortuny evil sexbaiting stunt. It’s been everywhere including Slashdot, Wired and will soon be in all the major newspapers.

In my opinion, Jason Fortuny’s future looks rather bleak. But who can guess when and in what way Karma will decide to deliver her ass-whoppin’?

Well, since he wanted to have some fun at the expense of others, I figure you should get to have some fun at his expense.

So, if you can accurately predict Jason Fortuny’s demise, you can win our “$500 Demise of Craiglist Prankster Jason Fortuny Contest.”

Here are the 3 possibilities we will include in the contest:

1. Criminal Indictment against Jason Fortuny

MrTurner at Threadwatch pointed out that what Jason did is a 2257 violation:

But the biggest issue he could fall into is the fact that posting nude images online without proper 2257 documentation is illegal. You can’t post nude images online in the US without proof that the individual is 18 years of age or older. A single offense could be a fine of $25,000 and up to 5 years in jail.

So there is certainly a chance for a federal indictment. Choice one is for a criminal Indictment of Jason Fortuny stemming from his publicity stunt (not a conviction).

2. Civil Damages awarded against Jason Fortuny
It is also likely that he would lose in civil court for either Intention Inflictional of emotional distress, copyright violations, or public disclosure of private facts. Choice two is for a court or Jury to award civil monetary damages exceeding $100k. This seems the most likely, but it may take the longest to come about.

3. Physical Harm or Death to Jason Fortuny
There is also the chance that one his victims will inflict enough violence on him to either put him in the hospital or the morgue. I am not endorsing this type of action, but it seems a possibility given his high profile, the availability of his contact information, the personality type of the people he screwed over and proximity to his more than 170 victims.

*You may not win this contest if you are one of the victims and you perform the violence (sorry, liability and all). Nor can you incite the violence to try to win the contest, it has to just happen naturally.

So put on your Nostradamus hats, whip out your crystal balls, or just take a wild guess!

Entries should be in this form in the comment section (one entry per person):

[Choice], [date], and [some comment mentioning Jason Fortuny]

If more than one person picks the winning choice and date, the $500 prize will be split. If no one picks the right date / choice combination, no prize will be awarded. First qualifying event ends the contest. If nothing happens to him – everybody loses.

Posted in Black Hat, Blog, Blogs, Internet, Internet Marketing, Link Bait, Marketing, SEM, SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Weblogs

25 Comments »

Poker Players Phone March on Capitol Hill

September 10th, 2006

QuadsZilla

Share

From the Poker Players Alliance:

The U.S. Senate is Seeking to Ban Online Poker
PPA Phone March on Capitol Hill Scheduled for Sept. 12

Dear PPA Member:

Your urgent action is needed! On September 12th the Poker Players Alliance with the support of leading poker blogs and forums, PocketFives.com, Wicked Chops Poker and others are organizing a “Phone March” on Capitol Hill. From 9:00 AM Eastern Time, until 5:30 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, September 12th, we are asking all PPA members and anyone interested in defending poker to call this toll free number, 800-289-1136 and be patched through to one of your two U.S. Senators in Washington D.C. When you call the 800 number you will hear a recording from fellow PPA member Greg “Fossilman” Raymer and then you will be prompted to enter your five digit zip code so you can be directed, free of charge, to your Senator’s office.

Note: The 800 number will only be active between 9:00 AM EST and 5:30 PM EST on Tuesday September 12.

Key points you should make:

* I am voter in your state.
* I strongly oppose any legislation that would prohibit online poker, and urge the Senator to vote against such legislation.
* Poker is a skill game enjoyed by 70 Million Americans.
* The Senator should seek to regulate online poker much like the government regulates other forms of gaming, like lotteries.
* Prohibitions don’t work. Any legislation that tries to ban online poker will only drive those players underground.
* Again, I urge the Senator to oppose any attempts to prohibit me from playing the great American game of poker on the Internet.

The threat to poker is real. Please forward this information to everyone you know who cares about poker and an American’s freedom to use the Internet. We need everyone possible to make their voice heard on September 12th!

Sincerely,

Michael Bolcerek
President
Poker Players Alliance

This is important, so please share with Reddit or Digg this story.

Posted in Black Hat, Blog, Blogs, Internet, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Poker, SEM, SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Weblogs

1 Comment »

Private SEO Black Hat Forum Contests

September 9th, 2006

QuadsZilla

Share

Since launching the Private SEO Black Hat Forum everyone keeps contacting me to ask two questions:

1. How is the Forum Going? and
2. Can I get a free Membership?

First, the forum is going great! It is already much more successful than I had hoped it would be. The value per post is unparalleled. The conversations are meaty and the best I’ve seen anywhere on the Web.

Inside the Private SEO Black Hat forum, we are having a contest for the month of September. Here is the thread:

I’m going to give $500 to whoever writes the best post in September.

Here are the rules:

Anyone can enter: including moderators. (I won’t enter).

You nominate your own best post in this thread.

I’ll close the thread on October 2nd and start a poll with all entries.

Voting for 5 days.

Top 4 posts will be selected for a new runoff poll.

5 more days of voting.

Whoever wins the most votes in that poll gets the $500.

A word of caution: I do not recommend joining the forum solely on the expectation of winning that contest. There are some very strong candidates already and we are less than a third of the way through the month.

But since I keep getting emails and messages like this:

Hey Quads,

These are some of the sites that I own: [list of sites]. I’ve been doing [list of expertise] forever and was wondering, could I get free subscription to yours forum?

-[lots of people]

and I’m tired of just saying no all the time, we’re going to open up another contest for people that are not yet paid members. Maybe, for someone like you . . .

During the next 7 days, you will have a chance to win a 3 month subscription to our private forum. All you have to do is email me (contest at seoblackhat.com) with the best post you can come up with. I’ll post all the good submissions in the forums and let everyone vote. Whoever gets the most votes, wins the subscription.

What should you write about? Whatever you think will get the most votes.

It’s put-up or shut-up time.

If you think you’ve got what it takes, here’s your chance to prove it.